MAGNA, Utah — With a new U.S. Geological Survey report shows nearly 75 percent of the United States could experience a damaging earthquake, but what exactly does that mean for Utah?
Although most Utahns know the state qualifies as an area inside earthquake country, scientists are discovering there are more locations with a higher likelihood of experiencing a strong earthquake than previously reported.
"I didn't think we'd have that bad of a quake here,” said Danny Colosimo, owner of Colosimo's.
The family run market had stood sturdy for nearly 100 years until it was hit by the Magna earthquake in 2020.
“Boom, the quake hit and we lost quite a bit of the wall up front and got closed down until we came back up to code," Colosimo said. "We had to rebuild according to code. So it took us about six months to reopen.”
New codes are updated every year based on a U.S. Geological Survey, which University of Utah seismologist Jim Pechmann says shows the what the chances of an earthquake hitting a certain area may be, and also the possible intensity they could shake.
“So these maps are used in basically producing building codes that are used to established seismic standards for the design of buildings and also things like bridges, all kinds of critical infrastructure," Pechmann explained. "They they find their way into these building codes usually a few years after the maps are updated.”
The most recent survey used new tools and technology that identified nearly 500 additional faults that could produce a damaging quake.
“Surprisingly, in the Wasatch Front area, the maps did not change that much. So the hazard is basically very similar to what it was in the 2018 maps. The hazard did increase somewhat in south central Utah,” added Pechmann.
Is Utah prepared for that increased hazard level?
“There's certainly plenty of room for improvement," said Pechmann. "One of the biggest problems we have here in Utah is there's a very large number of unreinforced brick and masonry buildings which have been known for a long time to do very poorly in earthquakes.
There's a lot of work that needs to be done with some of the public schools, Salt Lake City, either retrofit or replaced all of the public schools years ago to basically deal with the seismic safety issue, but other school districts have not yet done the same.”
If Colosimo were to completely rebuild his store, he said infrastructure that can more safely withstand an earthquake is something he’d definitely consider.
“The better that you can build something to withstand it, the better you are," he said. "I would think the better off you're going to be in the long run.”
